Monday, October 28, 2013

An estranged mate, a mangled body and a powerful demon who calls her by name…

As a Realm Walker for the Agency, Juliana Norris tracks deadly paranormal quarry using her unique ability to see magical signatures. She excels at her job, but her friends worry about her mysterious habit of dying in the line of duty without staying dead. That’s only the first of her secrets.

Most people don’t know Juliana became the mate of master vampire Thomas Kendrick before he abandoned her seven years ago. Most people don’t know the horrors she endured at the hands of the vampire he left in command. Most people don’t know her true parentage, or why a demon on a world-threatening rampage has taken a personal interest in her…

Even as Juliana pursues the demon, it goes after all she holds dear—including Thomas, who is back to claim her for his own. But if she can’t reconcile her past and learn to trust herself again, she will lose him forever.

MB's INTERVIEW

Thank you, Mrs. Collins

Vampires, demons, werewolves… and more: how they evolved in our perception and why did you though is necessary to explain some of their new characteristics? (I saw in the first Chapter/Excerpt about World War II radiations)

I think almost every urban fantasy has their own version of how the world came to be in the state it is. In some of them, the world is just the same with the creatures living in secret, although they usually have to explain how they have remained a secret. It’s part of the fun of world building to figure out the why. And I think to some extent we are forced to explain it because everyone’s worlds are so different. In some books vampires, demons, werewolves and all that are the good guys, in some books they’re the bad guys and in some books they are a mix of good and bad. In my world all the Altered, as those other beings are called in my world, are just like humans in that there is an even mix of the good and the bad. Some of them are plain evil and some of them are saint like.

I personally like the urban fantasy books with (a lot) of humor. What do you think, is the humor welcomed in Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance books? What it’s role and when it can/must be used?

I too like humor in my urban fantasy and I think in some part it’s a necessity. Realm Walker is a dark book, darker than I’d intended actually, but there are some moments of dark humor and I think they are necessary because they make the book more real. It’s kind of like someone telling a joke at a wake. It’s completely inappropriate but it’s kind of also what everyone needed right then. I think the humor in urban fantasy/paranormal romance is necessary for the same reason. They tend toward the darker side as a whole just based on their subject matter and the humor reminds us it’s not always dark.

When I read about those seven years in book’s description I said wow, can Thomas to be forgiven? What do you think about second chance between the same persons?

Well, this is a hard one to answer without giving some things away. What I will say is that Thomas is arrogant and hard as any master vampire that has attained his status would be. Despite that, he loves Juliana unconditionally. Whether that’s enough for her to forgive him, you’ll have to read to find out.

Usually, in an Urban Fantasy the happy ending is a certain thing – the lovers will remain together. But I believe that the journey is more important. What the author can/must do to keep the readers’ interest in their books?

I think that an author has to write characters that their readers can connect with. They have to develop a world that people can’t wait to get back to. And the world they create has to be believable within the parameters they set. To me, those things are more important than whether the main story threads tie up in each book or arch over the series.

Having in view the plethora of the Urban Fantasy books was written lately, how easy or hard it is to reinvent the consecrated characters and create an original plot?

Writing by definition is hard. That being said, the idea for Realm Walker came to me fairly easily but I put my own spin on the Altered and made them my own. I want to play in my world with my creatures, not someone else’s. It’s hard to reinvent things because you never know how people will react to your spin on them but you kind of have to ignore that and just go with your gut. Or your muse. Whichever one is being louder that day.

What awaits us in Death’s Daughter?

Book two in the Realm Walker series will be out in March 2014. In that book, Juliana is back, this time on the trail of a serial killer that is targeting Altered children. Thomas is also back and doing a little hunting of his own.